Author: Rob MacKinnon

When my divorcing clients begin mediation they might as well be deaf. They are desperate to be listened to but they are not even hearing each other. I get that. The strong emotions of loss, anger, fear and grief create an urgency to get their position stated. The painful situation creates strong defensive fortifications to…

(Hint: Ask a Mortgage Broker) Out from the barrage of questions facing partners who are separating to divorce, perhaps the largest, most terrifying and potentially heartbreaking is… What will happen with the Matrimonial Home ??? “ If we have equal rights to the property, how can we divide a building? How will our children deal…

If Merav Richter knew then what she knows today, she would not have continued living in the matrimonial home with her estranged husband throughout their 18-month transition from separation to divorce. Ms. Richter had agonized over the repercussions for the couple’s three children and her own financial future before she told her husband of 23…

“How do I get through the Hell of separation and divorce without getting completely burned or burning down my family?” To guide you out of separation Hell, get a Family Mediator through family mediation. If you are now separating leading to divorce let’s not mince words. Separation is Hell. It is a cruelly painful time…

A further unlikely source of my skill development as a mediator comes from the fact that I have directed about two dozen theatre productions. You may be thinking that telling people what to do would be more the job of an arbitrator or a judge and I would agree with you. The point is that…

I can also trace my present abilities as a mediator to my earlier professions. I was once a mariner. As a teenager my summer job was a deck hand on oil tankers sailing the Great Lakes and then voyaging up to the Eastern Arctic; Ungava Bay and Hudson’s Bay. After University I sailed from Japan…

Part 1: I became a certified family mediator after enjoying several careers, one of them being a long term as an educator; a privileged position I found rewarding and enlivening. The idea of having fun while helping young people develop communication skills, confidence and self esteem made for a great career; one that required all…

The Snapping Of a Wire  The summer I turned 15 my first job was as deck hand on the Shell oil tanker Arctic Trader out of Montreal. (Please don’t ask how I got that position, it is a long story) I was mostly overwhelmed by my surroundings. Everything was steel or rusty steel or grease.…

  My wife and I are tied together. Over thirty years we have woven a rope with strands of love, humour, children and most of all respect. The weaving process has at times been painful but we have somehow managed to avoid our cord unravelling. At times when it seemed like it was fraying we…